Health scoring and competition

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for collaborating health goals between members of a user group are provided. Collaborating health goals may include appointing a commissioner to determine the parameters of a health goal competition. The commissioner may invite one or more group members to participate in a health goal competition. To add motivation and interest to the competition, the health goal competition may be organized as teams of users with a team winning the competition. Health goal competitions may include weight loss competitions, fitness challenges, activity level challenges, smoking cessation challenges, healthy eating challenges, etc.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

None

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to health care scoring and competitions.

BACKGROUND

Motivating patients or other users to achieve various health objectivesis problematic. Users may set lofty goals without support to meet thosegoals. A support group may help users to stay motivated and accountable;however, organizing and coordinating a support group can be cumbersome.

SUMMARY

Examples are directed to methods, computer systems, and computer-storagemedia for use in collaborating health goals between users in a varietyof settings and applications. The method for collaborating health goalsbetween multiple users may provide a simpler and more effectiveorganization and support for users wishing to achieve a set of healthgoals. Moreover, the method may provide a competitive atmosphere for theachievement of the one health goal or set of health goals. Competitionmay improve user participation and also motivate users to achieveresults and goals beyond what they might achieve alone or in anon-competitive environment.

In one example, a method of collaborating health goals between two ormore users may be executed from computer-executable instructions storedon computer-storage media. The method of collaborating health goals maycomprise assigning at least one health goal for a health goalcompetition by a commissioner. The method may also comprise inviting oneor more users to participate in the health goal competition andenrolling the one or more users to participate in the health goalcompetition. Inviting the one or more users may comprise sending ahyperlink to the one or more users, and the hyperlink may direct the oneor more users to a website, which provides instructions to the one ormore users for enrolling to participate in the health goal competition.The method may further comprise tracking the progression of the one ormore participating users towards the at least one health goal anddetermining at least one winner of the one or more participating usersof the health goal competition.

In addition, the method may comprise notifying the one or more users andthe at least one commissioner of the progression of the one or moreusers towards the at least one health goal. The health goal competitionmay comprise a weight-loss challenge. The health goal competition maycomprise a series of challenges and points are assigned for thecompletion of each challenge such that accrual of points is at least onefactor in determining the at least one winner of the health goalcompetition. The method may further comprise providing an internet-basedforum for the interaction of participating members of the user group.

In another example, a method of collaborating health goals betweenmembers of a user group is provided. The method may comprise appointinga first member of a user group to be a commissioner of a health goalcompetition and assigning at least one criterion for winning the healthgoal competition. The method may also comprise inviting one or moreadditional members of the user group to participate in the health goalcompetition and enrolling one or more additional members of the usergroup as participating members in the health goal competition. Themethod may further comprise tracking the progression based on the atleast one criterion of the participating members and determining atleast one winner of the health goal competition.

In addition, the method may comprise creating a plurality of teams,which compete in the health goal competition, and appointing at leastone team captain to each of the plurality of teams. Appointing of theteam captains may be performed by the commissioner. Inviting one or moreadditional members of the user group may comprise inviting one or moreadditional members of the user group to join one of the plurality ofteams. Enrolling the one or more additional members of the user group asparticipating members may further comprise assigning the participatingmembers to one team of the plurality of teams. Determining at least onewinner of the health goal competition may comprise determining which ofthe plurality of teams wins the health goal competition. The method mayfurther comprise notifying participating members of the progression ofeach of the participating members. The method may comprise notifying themembers of each team of the progression of each team of the plurality ofteams. The method may comprise providing a web-based forum for theinteraction of participating members.

Furthermore, the method may comprise inviting one or more additionalmembers of the user group by providing at least one hyperlink to the oneor more additional members of the user group, and the at least onehyperlink directs the one or more additional members to a website, whichprovides instructions for enrolling to participate in the health goalcompetition. Inviting the one or more additional members may beinitiated by one or more participating members. Each team captain ofeach of the teams may invite one or more additional members of the usergroup to join the team associated with each team captain. The one ormore additional members may be assigned to the team associated with theinviting team captain.

One additional example of a method of collaborating health goals betweenmembers of a user group may comprise assigning at least one criterionfor winning a health goal competition by at least one member of a usergroup, who is the commissioner of the health goal competition. Thehealth goal competition may be between a plurality of teams composed ofmembers of the user group. The method may comprise inviting one or moreadditional members of the user group to participate as a member of atleast one of the plurality of teams and enrolling the one or moreadditional members of the user group as a participating member of the atleast one of the plurality of teams in the health goal competition. Themethod may comprise tracking progression based on the at least onecriterion of the participating members of the user group and determiningat least one winning team of the health goal competition.

The health goal competition may comprise a series of challenges for theparticipating members and the at least one winning team may bedetermined by the total challenges completed by the participatingmembers. Furthermore, inviting one or more additional members of theuser group may be initiated by at least one of the team captains of theplurality of teams. Inviting one or more additional members of the usergroup may be initiated by one or more participating members of theplurality of teams. The method may further comprise inviting one or moreadditional members of the user group by providing at least one hyperlinkto the one or more additional members of the user group. The at leastone hyperlink directs the one or more additional members to a website,which may provide instructions for enrolling to participate in thehealth goal competition.

This section provides a general summary of the disclosure, and is not acomprehensive disclosure of its full scope or all of its features.Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the descriptionprovided herein. The description and specific examples in this summaryare intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended tolimit the scope of the present disclosure.

DRAWINGS

The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only ofselected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are notintended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a method for collaborating health goals betweenusers.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method for collaborating health goals betweenusers.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for collaborating health goals betweenusers and teams of users.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method for collaborating health goals betweenusers and teams of users.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of an invitation to participate in a healthgoal competition

FIG. 6 is an illustration of a system that may be employed to execute amethod for collaborating health goals between users.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of a system that may be employed to execute amethod for collaborating health goals between users.

Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughoutthe several views of the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Users often set health goals such as weight loss targets, resolutions toeat more fruits and vegetables, or quitting smoking but lose motivationto meet these important goals. Support from other users with similargoals can be helpful but finding such support and organizing these userscan be difficult. Oftentimes, users competing to meet health goals willhave higher rates of success; however, moderating a competition andkeeping track of user progress over the course of a competition areobstacles.

Accordingly, methods for collaborating health goals between users areprovided. These methods may be administered through computing systemsand networks, which can provide better accessibility to many users whomay be geographically separate. Generally, a user in a user group whowishes to initiate a health goal competition will act as thecommissioner of the competition. A health goal competition may bebetween a plurality of individual users or it may be between teams ofusers or both. The parameters of the health goal competition may bedetermined by the commissioner, who may decide if the competition isbetween teams or individuals or both. The commissioner may also selectwhat the criteria or criterion for the competition will be, for example,the commissioner may choose a weight loss competition, a healthy eatingcompetition, an activity level competition, a physiological parametercompetition, or a smoking cessation competition, etc. or any combinationof competitions.

Once the parameters of the competition are assigned, the commissionermay invite users to join the competition. The commissioner may choose toinvite or assign users to be team leaders who, in turn, invite users tojoin the competition or their respective teams. Users who are already inthe competition may invite additional users to participate. Invitationsmay be extended via email, instant messaging, social networking, orthrough other forms of internet-based communication. For example, a usermay have a blog on which he or she posts an invitation hyperlink, whichroutes users to an enrollment website. The users may enroll in thecompetition through a user computer, which may be a personal computer,smartphone, PDA, laptop, tablet computer, gaming system, or othernetworked computing device. Users may enroll in a competition in personor over telephone and the enrollment information may be transferred to acomputer that is in communication with a server that administers thecompetition. In a team-based competition, users may enroll and selecttheir team or they may be automatically assigned to a team. Users may beautomatically assigned to the team which invited them or they may berandomly assigned to teams to provide teams with even distribution ofusers.

Once the users and/or teams are enrolled, the health goal competitionmay begin. Each user may be requested to provide their initial healthinformation, such as starting weight. Then the users may update theirweight over the course of the competition. Similarly, in othercompetitions, users may be responsible for periodically updating theirown progress. Points or awards may be given for consistent updating toencourage users to report their progress. Examples of metrics mayinclude, minutes of exercise in a day, a food diary/blog, how manycigarettes per day, etc. In another example, updating may be done by anetworked device that reports updates automatically, such as aninternet-enabled scale that automatically logs a user's weight. Otherautomatic monitoring may include networked fitness center equipment suchas cardio equipment that logs in the number of minutes and intensitylevel of a user's workout. Another example of automatic tracking mightinclude a user worn monitoring device that detects if a user has beensmoking. Each user's progression towards meeting the health goal may betracked on a central server or other computing device. In anotherexample, the commissioner may host the tracking on a personal computer.In the team-based competition, the aggregated progression of all teammembers may also be tracked. For example, total weight loss might becounted. To spur competition, the progression of other competing usersand teams may be available to the users. Internet-based forums may beprovided for users to interact to provide encouragement.

A health goal competition may include multiple challenges and criteria.For example, a health competition may include a check-up challenge inwhich users are awarded points for having routine screening andcheck-ups completed. The same health competition may also include ahealthy eating challenge in which users are awarded points for dietaryimprovements. The metrics for the progress of users or teams of usersmay be assigned by the commissioner or may be assigned by a sponsoringorganization.

At the end of the competition, which may be determined by thecommissioner, the winner and/or winning team may be determined. Forexample, the team which had the most users who smoked the least over thecompetition period or the team which lost the greatest averagepercentage of weight may be deemed the winning team. To provideadditional motivation, a prize may be awarded to the individual winneror winning team. For example, each user joining may “buy-in” and pay asum of cash with the winner taking the pot. In another example, acompany sponsoring the competition for workers may supply a prize forthe winning team, such as a celebratory dinner or vacation.

For example, in FIG. 1 a method 100 for collaborating the health goalsbetween two or more users is illustrated as a flowchart. In step 101, acommissioner, who may or may not be a participant in the competition,assigns at least one goal for a health goal competition. Thecommissioner may be a company or other group sponsoring the competition.For example, the goal might be a weight loss goal. In step 102, usersare invited to participate in the health goal competition. Invitationsmay be sent as emails or instant messages or through social networkprograms as hyperlinks for users to navigate to in order to enroll.Invitations may be simply posted as hyperlinks on a website. In step103, the users enroll to participate in the health goal competition. Theprogress or progression of the participating users towards the at leastone health goal is tracked in step 104. As described above, thisprogression may be tracked by the user inputting his or her progressinto a form provided on a website administered by a central server. Theprogression may be tracked automatically by any number of networkeddevices. In step 105, the winner of the health goal competition isdetermined, for example, as according to who met or exceeded the goaloriginally assigned. In order to spur competition between participatingusers, the users and/or the commissioner may be notified of theprogression of the users during the competition at step 106.

FIG. 2 illustrates an additional example of a method 200 forcollaborating health goals between users. In step 201, a first member ofa user group is appointed commissioner of a health goal competition. Theappointment may occur in any number of ways: organization may appointthe commissioner, the user group may vote to appoint the commissioner,or the first member may volunteer to appoint him/herself to be thecommissioner. Next, the commissioner may assign at least one criterionfor winning the health goal competition at step 202. Alternately or inconjunction, an organization sponsoring the health goal competition mayassign the criterion or may ask the commissioner to assign thatcriterion. The user group involved in the competition may have inputtowards what the criterion or criteria for winning the health goalcompetition may be. In step 203, one or more additional members of theuser group may be invited to participate in the health goal competition.

Next, step 204 includes enrolling the one or more additional members ofthe user group as participating members in the health goal competition.Enrollment may include inputting the user's physical parameters througha user computing device or user computer into a form of a websiteadministered by a server. A user computing device may be a personalcomputer, laptop, gaming system, tablet computer, smartphone, PDA, etc.The user computer may be a terminal provided by a sponsoringorganization. Enrollment may include the purchase, rental, or requestfor tracking equipment. Enrollment may also include submitting adoctor's authorization that the user is healthy enough to participate inthe challenge. The enrollment step may include one or more waivers oragreements.

Continuing in FIG. 2, step 205 includes tracking the progress based onthe at least one criterion of the participating members. Participatingmembers may log-on to a website administered by a server to input theprogression towards the health goal. Alternately, tracking devices suchas pedometers, scales, PDAs, smartphones, etc. may provide progress datathat can be tracked. For example, a user may wear a pedometer that he orshe may connect with a computer periodically to upload the number ofmiles walked or run over a period of time. Ultimately, a winner of thehealth goal competition may be determined at step 206. There may be morethan one winner, for example, if different categories are assigned. Forexample, in a fitness challenge, there may be a winner for the greatestoverall improvement and another winner for the highest fitness level atthe conclusion of the competition. Moreover, a periodic winner in thecompetition may be determined. For example, in a weight losscompetition, a winner may be determined in the first week for the mostweight lost and the competition may continue beyond that first week.

Additionally, FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a method 300 forcollaborating health goals between users using a team-based approach. Instep 301, a first member of a user group is appointed the commissionerof a health goal competition. The commissioner may have control over theentire health goal competition or serve as an administrator with inputfrom other participants or a governing body. The commissioner may assignat least one criterion for winning the health goal competition at step302. At step 303, the commissioner may create a plurality of teams tocompete in the health goal competition. For example, the commissionermay decide on a competition between four groups of five members each,etc. At step 304, a team captain is appointed to each of the pluralityof teams. The team captain may be the primary liaison between theparticipating members and the commissioner. The team captain may beresponsible for filling his/her roster with participating membersthrough invitations. The team captains may serve as coaches andmotivators to their teams as the competition progresses.

Next, one or more additional members are invited to participate in thehealth goal competition to join one of the plurality of teams in step305. As described above, the invitations may be extended by thecommissioner, the sponsoring organization, the team captains, orparticipating members and may be in the form of a communicated hyperlinkto an enrollment website administered by a server. The one or moreadditional members enroll as participating members and also are assignedas participating members to one team of the plurality of teams in step306. The assignment of enrolled members to a team may be automatic basedon which team extended the invitation to the enrolled member or themember may be allowed to choose which team to join.

In step 307, the progress of the participating members is tracked basedon the at least one criterion. The progression of the team may bedetermined based upon the member progress either by aggregation,averaging, or other calculation methods. Through the course of thecompetition, the progression of the individuals and the team may beavailable to the team leaders and/or to the participants. Theindividuals may choose to share or not share their individual progress.The team progress displayed to other competing teams may or may notinclude individual rankings. In one example, all participating membersare able to see the team rankings but only members of a team are able tosee the progression of their team members. Furthermore, an internetforum may be provided, such as through a server associated with thecompetition, for the participating members to offer encouragement,motivation, tips, etc.

In step 308, the winning team is determined from the plurality of teamsin the health goal competition. In addition, individual winners may bedetermined. Furthermore, multiple winners may be determined for amulti-challenge health goal competition. In addition, winning teams maybe determined at intermediate points in the competition. For example,between four teams competing in a weight-loss competition, the team withthe most total weight lost at the half-way point may be awarded a prize.Then at the conclusion of the weight-loss competition, the team with themost total weight lost in the end may be awarded a grand prize.

FIG. 4 illustrates another example of a method 400 for collaboratinghealth goals between users in a team-based competition. In step 401, atleast one criterion for winning a health goal competition between aplurality of teams is assigned. There may be a plurality of criteria forwinning the health goal competition. For example, a number of fitnesschallenges may be assigned: total number of sit-ups per minute, timedmile, total number of push-ups, total number of sit-ups, etc. Points maybe awarded for the completion of each challenge. Each user may be askedto do these challenges each week. The health goal competition may be achallenge to improve over-all health with a weight-loss challenge, afitness challenge, a doctor check-up challenge, and a healthy eatingchallenge wherein points are awarded for the completion of eachchallenge.

In step 402, at least one team captain may be appointed to each of theplurality of teams. The team captains may be appointed by thecommissioner, may be voted upon by the participants, and/or may beappointed by a sponsor. Next, one or more members of the user group maybe invited to participate as a member of one of the plurality of teamsin step 403. The one or more members may be invited by the team captainto join his or her team. The one or more members may be invited by thecommissioner, by a sponsoring organization, and/or by a member who isalready enrolled to participate.

In step 404, the one or more additional members of the user group isenrolled as a participating member of one of the plurality of teams. Theone or more additional members may be assigned to the team thatoriginally extended the invitation, either through a team captain or amember of the team. The one or more additional members may be randomlyassigned to a team. The one or more additional members may be assignedto a team by the commissioner. In addition, through the course of thecompetition, there may be challenges that enable teams to swap or trademembers to gain an advantage. There may be challenges that result in theelimination of members and the eliminated members are enrolled in asecondary competition in order to rejoin the primary competition.

In step 405, the progression of the participating members of each groupis tracked and may additionally be reported to the other members or theteam captains of the group. In addition, the progression of each teammay be available to the participating members such as through a rankingsdisplay on a website. In step 406, at least one winning team isdetermined. As described above, there may be a plurality of challengesin the health goal competition and as such, there may be more than onewinning team over the course of the competition. Furthermore, individualwinners may be determined from the pool of participating members, suchas a Most Valuable Player. In addition, a losing team or losing membermay be determined. For example, the team that progresses the least maybe required to wash the cars for the team that is determined to be thewinner. Motivation for meeting the collaborative user goals may beaccomplished by any number of means.

In FIG. 5, one example of an invitation to participate in the healthgoal competition is illustrated. The invitation may be an email 500providing a hyperlink 501,502 to Jane Doe to join the “FitnessChallenge.” Jane Doe may use the hyperlink to navigate to the enrollmentpage to join the Fitness Challenge. Jane Doe may also forward thehyperlink to other users to invite them to join the Fitness Challenge.The hyperlink and enrollment page maybe administered by a central serveror by the commissioner of the health goal competition. The hyperlink maybe copied and pasted into other forms of internet communication, such asinstant messages, social networking feeds, blogs, etc.

One example of a system for administering the method of collaboratinghealth goals is illustrated in FIG. 6. Generally one or more servers 602may include exemplary server components comprise a processing unit,internal system memory, and a suitable system bus for coupling varioussystem components, including the central data store, with the server.The system bus might be any of several types of bus structures,including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and alocal bus, using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The server 602 typically includes therein, or has access to, a varietyof computer-storage media. Computer-storage media can be any availablemedia that might be accessed by the server 101 and may be removable ornon-removable media. Computer storage media may comprise RAM, ROM,EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digitalversatile disks (DVDs) or other optical disk storage, magneticcassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage, or other magneticstorage device, or any other medium which can be used to store thedesired information and which may be accessed by the server 602.Combinations of any of the above also may be included within the scopeof computer-storage media. Computer storage media provide storage ofcomputer-executable instructions, data structures, and program modules,and other data for the server.

The server 602 is linked to a plurality of user computers 603-606 via anetwork 601. The user computers 603-606 might be personal computers,servers, routers, network PCs, peer devices, other common network nodes,or the like and might comprise some or all of the elements describedabove in relation to the server 602. The devices can be personal digitalassistants or other like devices.

Exemplary computer networks 601 comprise local area networks (LANs)and/or wide area networks (WANs). Such networking environments arecommonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets,and the Internet. When utilized in a WAN networking environment, theserver 602 might comprise a modem or other means for establishingcommunications over the WAN, such as the Internet. In a networkedenvironment, program modules or portions thereof might be stored inassociation with the server 602 or any of the user computers 603-606.For example, various application programs may reside on the memoryassociated with any one or more of the authenticated terminal. It willbe appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the networkconnections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing acommunications link between the computers (e.g., server 602 andauthenticated terminals) might be utilized.

In operation, an organization or a commissioner might enter commands andinformation into the server 602 or convey the commands and informationto the server 602 via one or more of the user computers 603-606 throughinput devices, such as a keyboard, a pointing device (commonly referredto as a mouse), a trackball, or a touch pad. Other input devicescomprise microphones, satellite dishes, scanners, or the like. Inaddition to a monitor, the control server 602 and/or authenticatedterminals might comprise other peripheral output devices, such asspeakers and a printer.

Although many other internal components of the server 602 and the usercomputers are not shown, those of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that such components and their interconnection are wellknown.

Referring to FIG. 7, a system 700 for performing the method ofcollaborating health goals is illustrated. Component 701 may provideassignment of at least one health goal for the health goal competition.Item 702 may provide invitation of one or more users to participate inthe health goal competition. Enrollment of the one or more users toparticipate may be provided by component 703. Progression of theparticipating users towards the at least one health goal may be tracked704. At least one winner of the health goal competition may bedetermined 705.

The system and methods described may be operational with numerous othergeneral purpose or special purpose computing system environments orconfigurations. Examples of well-known computing systems, environments,and/or configurations that might be suitable for use with the presentinvention include personal computers, server computers, hand-held orlaptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems,set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs,minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environmentsthat include any of the above-mentioned systems or devices, and thelike.

The systems and methods might be described in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions, such as program modules, beingexecuted by a computer. Exemplary program modules comprise routines,programs, objects, components, and data structures that performparticular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Thepresent invention might be practiced in distributed computingenvironments where tasks are performed by remove processing devices thatare linked through a communications network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules might be located in association with localand/or remove computer storage media (e.g. memory storage devices).

The foregoing description of the embodiments has been provided forpurposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the invention. Individual elements or features ofa particular embodiment are generally not limited to that particularembodiment, but, where applicable, are interchangeable and may be usedin a selected embodiment, even if not specifically shown or described.

1. Computer-storage media having computer-executable instructions storedthereon that, when executed, when executed, perform a method ofcollaborating health goals between two or more users, the methodcomprising: assigning at least one health goal for a health goalcompetition by a commissioner; inviting one or more users to participatein the health goal competition; enrolling the one or more users toparticipate in the health goal competition; tracking a progression ofthe one or more participating users towards the at least one healthgoal; and determining at least one winner of the one or participatingusers of the health goal competition.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereininviting the one or more users comprises: sending a hyperlink to the oneor more users, wherein the hyperlink directs the one or more users to awebsite and the website provides instructions to the one or more usersfor enrolling to participate in the health goal competition.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising notifying the one or more usersand the at least one commissioner of the progression of the one or moreusers towards the at least one health goal.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the health goal competition comprises a weight-loss challenge.5. The method of claim 1, wherein the health goal competition comprisesa series of challenges and points are assigned for the completion ofeach challenge such that accrual of points is at least one factor indetermining the at least one winner of the health goal competition. 6.The method of claim 1, the method further comprising providing aninternet-based forum for the interaction of participating members of theuser group.
 7. A method of collaborating health goals between members ofa user group, the method comprising: appointing a first member of a usergroup to be a commissioner of a health goal competition; assigning atleast one criterion for winning the health goal competition; invitingone or more additional members of the user group to participate in thehealth goal competition; enrolling one or more additional members of theuser group as participating members in the health goal competition;tracking the progression based on the at least one criterion of theparticipating members; and determining at least one winner of the healthgoal competition.
 8. The method of claim 7, the method furthercomprising: creating a plurality of teams, wherein the plurality ofteams compete in the health goal competition; appointing at least oneteam captain to each of the plurality of teams, wherein the teamcaptains are appointed by the commissioner; inviting one or moreadditional members of the user group further comprises inviting one ormore additional members of the user group to join one of the pluralityof teams; enrolling the one or more additional members of the user groupas participating members further comprises assigning the participatingmembers to one team of the plurality of teams; and determining at leastone winner of the health goal competition comprises determining which ofthe plurality of teams wins the health goal competition.
 9. The methodof claim 8, wherein determining at least lease one winner furthercomprises determining at least one individual winner from all of theparticipating members who wins the health goal competition.
 10. Themethod of claim 7, the method further comprising notifying participatingmembers of the progression of each of the participating members.
 11. Themethod of claim 8, the method further comprising notifying the membersof each team of the progression of each team of the plurality of teams.12. The method of claim 7, the method further comprising providing aweb-based forum for the interaction of participating members.
 13. Themethod of claim 7, wherein inviting one or more additional members ofthe user group further comprises inviting one or more additional membersof the user group by providing at least one hyperlink to the one or moreadditional members of the user group and the at least one hyperlinkdirects the one or more additional members to a website and the websiteprovides instructions for enrolling to participate in the health goalcompetition
 14. The method of claim 8, wherein inviting one or moreadditional members of the user group is initiated by one or moreparticipating members.
 15. The method of claim 8, wherein each teamcaptain of each of the plurality of teams invites one or more additionalmembers of the user group to join the team associated with each teamcaptain and assigning the one or more additional members to the teamassociated with the inviting team captain.
 16. A method of collaboratinghealth goals between members of a user group, the method comprising:assigning at least one criterion for winning a health goal competitionby at least one member of a user group, wherein the at least one memberof a user group is the commissioner of the health goal competition andthe health goal competition is between a plurality of teams composed ofmembers of the user group; appointing at least one team captain to eachof the plurality of teams; inviting one or more additional members ofthe user group to participate as a member of at least one of theplurality of teams; enrolling the one or more additional members of theuser group as a participating member of the at least one of theplurality of teams in the health goal competition; tracking aprogression based on the at least one criterion of the participatingmembers of the user group; and determining at least one winning team ofthe health goal competition.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein thehealth goal competition comprises a series of challenges for theparticipating members and the at least one winning team is determined bythe total challenges completed by the participating members.
 18. Themethod of claim 16, wherein inviting one or more additional members ofthe user group is initiated by at least one of the team captains of theplurality of teams.
 19. The method of claim 16, wherein inviting one ormore additional members of the user group is initiated by one or moreparticipating members of the plurality of teams.
 20. The method of claim16, wherein inviting one or more additional members of the user groupfurther comprises inviting one or more additional members of the usergroup by providing at least one hyperlink to the one or more additionalmembers of the user group and the at least one hyperlink directs the oneor more additional members to a website and the website providesinstructions for enrolling to participate in the health goalcompetition.